10 Reasons the SyFy Channel Sucks

[TMC]

http://furiousfanboys.com/2013/01/10...zergnet_111377

10 Reasons the SyFy Channel SucksJanuary 20th, 2013 at 10:27 am by Jeremy Conrad

When the SciFi Channel launched on September 24, 1992 geeks around the world rejoiced. Finally there was a cable channel totally dedicated to science fiction. On that first day, the very first thing SciFi ever ran was Star Wars. Sure, the early years were dominated by re-runs of old series, but the channel was a great one-stop-shop series people hadn’t seen in years.

Over its history the SciFi Channel has had a poisonous relationship with fans as they tend to cancel good shows and replace them with cheap to make reality shows that have nothing to do with science fiction. Simply put, the SyFy Channel now sucks and there are ten reasons why.

Check out our sequel to this list, 5 Cable Channels That Are More “SciFi” Than SyFy!

Wrestling

Before wrestling fans break their keyboards in anger over this, I’m a huge WWE fan and watch both Raw and Smackdown every week. But neither one has any place on the SyFy Channel. The Friday Smackdown block could be better used for original programming, but instead they show wrestling on a channel the originally showed things like Star Wars, Quantum Leap, and Lost in Space.

Ghost Hunters

Ignoring the fact that the Ghost Hunters have been proven to be big fakers who stage their night vision haunting videos for the show, this franchise also has nothing to do with the SyFy Channel. If it was on Chill, or some other channel targeted more toward horror, I think it would fit better. But all of these Ghost Hunter shows fit SyFy as much as Smackdown does.

Stupid Reality Shows

Viral Video Showdown? Are your fracking kidding me? The SyFy Channel actually pays an intern to troll through YouTube, sort by “most views”, and they turn that into a show? And that’s just one of the stupid reality shows they have on the channel. And don’t even get me started on Scare Tactics.

SyFy Original Movies

SyFy’s original movies are a joke and nothing more than a ploy to get ratings out of sheer audience curiosity at how terrible they are as opposed to actually being “good” bad movies. If SyFy wants to air some scifi “B” movies on Saturday nights, there’s a very large library available without having to produce **** movies that everyone rolls their eyes at. If SyFy would show movies like Battle Beyond the Stars or Cannibal the Musical (with the drunken Trey Parker and Matt Stone commentary track) on Saturday nights, I know I’d watch.

SyFy

The whole reason they changed their name from the “SciFi Channel” to “SyFy” was money. “SciFi” was a general term that they couldn’t trademark, and thus control, so they changed the name to something stupid. As a result they seemed to decide that their programming could go beyond just scifi and into crap and stuff that has no business being on a science fiction channel.

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Farscape

Farscape was the beginning of the decline for the SciFi Channel. While it’s true the series was expensive to produce, with the amazing work being done by the Creature Shop on it, the show was one of the most amazing science fiction programs on television, and SciFi cancelled the show before they could end the story. That forced the creators to wrap everything up in a short mini-series on another network. Farscape deserved to live as long as fans wanted it around.

Caprica

Some shows need more than ten or thirteen episodes to find their footing, but SyFy cancelled the Battlestar Galactica prequel before it even completed its first full season. And what took Caprica‘s place one the channel? Another cheap reality series and Ghost Hunters spin-off.

Battlestar Galactica

Ron Moore’s Battlestar Galactica is now regarded as a modern science fiction masterpiece. Thanks to SyFy shuffling it around the schedule and delaying premieres long after it aired in the UK and Canada, the series struggled for ratings in the US. Add to that the cost of the series, which was actually co-financed by other international networks besides SyFy, the series was always in danger of cancellation. Finally, the producers came to an agreement with SyFy to end the series after four years. The result was a fourth season that many fans still argue about in regards to its quality.

Stargate Universe

Anyone who pays attention to SyFy knows that they like to cancel shows after four or five seasons. After they cancelled Stargate: Atlantis after five seasons, they launched Stargate Universe. The problem was that the Stargate shows were sort of the light-hearted family-friendly, but still intelligent and moral, replacements for weekly Star Trek episodes. With Stargate Universe they tried to make it a dark replacement for Battlestar Galactica, and people really didn’t tune in. So SyFy cancelled it after two seasons, leaving the story with a cliffhanger ending that likely won’t be resolved (since the TV/DVD movie was cancelled).

Stargate: SG1

Why is SG-1 on this list? Didn’t it last for ten years? Yes, but only five years on the SciFi Channel. The first five years were on Showtime, and then SciFi bought it. It nearly didn’t even get a 10th season. The only reason they allowed the show to go for a fifth season on the network was for the marketing bullet point of being the longest-running North American scifi series as they had it go one more year than X-Files before canceling it.

[robyrob]

Siffy just keeps getting worse and worse; I am still mad about them cancelling Eureka and Warehouse13 and they keep replacing good shows with the most ridiculous crap.

[Torgo]

They still have Face Off which is excellent.

[Mr. Television]

I haven't watched this channel since the 1990's.

[mets82]

I dont watch SyFy except for Smackdown. I never understood why people complain about wrestling being on SyFy. Its only on 2 hrs. every week. Its not like its on every day.

[Zoneboy]

Originally Posted by Stuck In The '70's

I haven't watched this channel since the 1990's.

Likewise and I doubt we've missed much.

[Mace Dolex]

Ah yes I remember the early days of Sci-Fi in fact that is how I discovered obsure shows like War Of The Worlds and rediscovered forgotten classics like Automan, Misfits Of Science and yes even Manimal.

I also remember them having an animation morning block showing classic cartoons.

[king of comedy]

Why is wrestling on SyFy? It should be on Spike or TNT. I miss Alphas. That was good but they cancelled that after 2 years.

[Torgo]

Originally Posted by king of comedy

Why is wrestling on SyFy? It should be on Spike or TNT. I miss Alphas. That was good but they cancelled that after 2 years.

I'm guessing because it's cheap, and they cancel good shows like Alphas and Eureka because they cost money. Alphas definitely didn't get a fair chance.

[Torgo]

SyFy was/is responsible for some really good original-to-Syfy TV shows: Battlestar Galactica, Eureka, Warehouse 13, Farscape, G vs E, Haven, Alphas, Capricorn, Lost Girl, Being Human(though I still like the British version better), and Helix is turning out to be a promising new show.

[mets82]

Originally Posted by king of comedy

Why is wrestling on SyFy? It should be on Spike or TNT. I miss Alphas. That was good but they cancelled that after 2 years.

WWE programming is on the NBC networks which is why it isnt on TNT or Spike. Spike already has TNA Wrestling

[Tubehead]

I don't call them scif any more I call them horror channel all they show is horror movies. I wish they would bring back classic sci fi shows. I
remember when I was back in high school sic fi would have marathons of
The Incredible Hulk & quantum leap I remember watching quantum leap after I got out of high school Mondays thur Fridays week days at 4:00 pm on sci fi I miss those days I do like wear house 13 it kind of like x-files

[TMC]

http://io9.com/syfy-basically-admits...ium=socialflow

In a telling article with Entertainment Weekly, Syfy proclaims the channel's new commitment to science fiction and the genre that originally made it great. But also in there is a quiet admission that when they dropped their core programming and turned from Sci-Fi into Syfy, they messed up.

It's certainly how EW sees it, and given that so many other channels have recently done shows so successfully that once would have practically been the Scifi Channel's exclusive domain — like the fantasy of HBO's Game of Thrones, or AMC's zombie drama The Walking Dead — the fact that Syfy feels it needs to announce its return to its own genre speaks volumes. After Battlestar Galactica ended, Syfy turned away from doing ambitious, high-end, "serious" shows in favor of lighter fare.

And now, Syfy says that perceptions of science fiction and other genre entertainment have changed, but it's important to note that other than the BSG reboot, which ended in 2009, Syfy didn't have much of a hand in that.

[robyrob]

admitting that they screwed up is completely meaningless - they currently have the same entertainment value as a 24-hour infomercial.


other than Haven they basically aren't even a real network anymore.

[AB]

There are a few good shows on this network. There's Haven, Lost Girl, Bitten and Z Nation. I used to watch Being Human but unfortunately it ended and I think Lost Girl is supposed to end after this next season. So I'll be watching this station less often.